Nuclear regulators question spent-fuel issues at Turkey Point

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has called a special meeting next week to discuss three apparent violations involving a spent fuel pool at Turkey Point — a critical issue as the long-held plans for storing waste in Nevada have completely collapsed.

Technically, the meeting in Atlanta on Wednesday involves the degradation of "a neutron-absorbing material called Boraflex in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool." Used nuclear fuel has been building up at Turkey Point for the 35 years of its operation. The degradation involves systems intended to cram more spent fuel into the pools, according to Lawrence King, a former NRC inspector.

More than two million pounds of waste now sit at the South Miami-Dade site in pools of water — although Florida Power & Light Co. spokesman Michael Waldron says it's more accurate to think of the spent rods as occupying a 16-foot cube if bunched together.

For years, the federal government's plan has been to move all nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. But after massive zoning and environmental battles, that concept is now officially dead, completing a campaign promise made by President Barack Obama. The U.S. Department of Energy is considering other options.

FPL's Waldron said Wednesday that the NRC's issue "is compliance" with its standards, ‘‘not related to safety." He said the problem involved "two cells out of 1400" of Boraflex panels, which have been placed in the pools to absorb neutrons and reduce the radioactive process.

"The pools were never designed to hold this much fuel to start with," said King, the former NRC inspector. Using the Boraflex panels and inserting boron into the water are intended to absorb neutrons to prevent the nuclear rods from "going critical. You don't want criticality in a fuel pool. That would be disastrous," said King.

Philip Stoddard, a longtime critic of Turkey Point and a biology professor at Florida International University, said, "FPL has been playing a game of chicken with the NRC," by continuing to increase the density of the rods in the pools.

In essence, FPL has been saying to the NRC, "We know you're not going to let us get stuck here," Stoddard said. "Everybody's been watching as the reserve capacity disappears. For two years, the clock's been ticking. Space has been running out. It didn't take a genius to see space was running."

An alternative form of storage, in dry casks, has now gotten its regulatory approvals at Turkey Point, Waldron said, and construction has started. Many other nuclear facilities have already moved to dry casks, meaning they don't have problems with things like Boraflex panels.

Waldron said FPL had reported to the NRC that it had a problem. Because of manufacturing issues with the panels, it has not been able to deal with the issue as fast as the NRC wanted. "We have managed the pools in a safe manner," the FPL spokesman said.

In a press release, the NRC said it viewed the Turkey Point problem as "more than very low safety significance."

The NRC became aware of the problem in December. "Although FPL has taken compensatory measures including the addition of boron, the design basis documents did not reflect the current spent fuel pool conditions," the press release said.

"Earlier this year, the NRC staff issued a confirmatory action letter to FPL designed to ensure that the company implements a number of actions to address the issue, including submitting a license amendment request, changing some administrative controls, increasing the amount of boron and revising the plant's safety analysis report."